EU Single-Use Plastics Directive
Analysis of provisions and potential measures regarding extended producer responsibility
- Publication
- Citation
Altvater, Susanne, Stephan Sina, Martin Hirschnitz-Garbers et al. 2022: EU Single-Use Plastics Directive – analysis of provisions and potential measures regarding extended producer responsibility. Final Report. Climate Change 42/2022. Federal Environment Agency: Dessau-Roßlau.
Combating plastic litter on land and in water is one of the major challenges of global environmental protection. As part of its plastics strategy, the EU adopted Directive (EU) 2019/904 on the reduction of the impact of certain plastic products on the environment (SUP-Directive).
This final report assesses the Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) provisions of the SUP-Directive with a view to its implementation in the Member States. The focus of this analysis lays on those aspects that represent novelties as compared to other EU legislation on EPR, and thus raise legal questions that have not been addressed before, especially regarding the cleaning up of litter from relevant SUP products.
Moreover, the report analyses potentially relevant EPR measures for the eight different SUP products covered by Art. 8 of the SUP-Directive (EPR provisions) regarding their collection, transport, treatment, cleaning up and awareness raising. The same was elaborated for the relevant provisions for fishing gear.
Finally, the report presents two proposals for a specific mechanism to implement the EPR provisions of the SUP-Directive: a littering fund for SUP products and an insurance fund for fishing gear.